Tuesday, 24 May 2016

1. Rocky Marciano insisted on getting paid in
cash. Marciano felt as if Lawyers & Accountants were out to get him. He was
probably 50 years ahead of his time on that.

2. Marciano was heavily into weight training
before his boxing career.

3. Marciano felt that being Heavyweight
champion of the world meant he represented boxing. For this reason Marciano
ensured his flawed character traits weren’t shown to the media and he put
across an awesome image at every moment.

4. Marciano didn’t drink or smoke.

5. Marciano respected authority and he was a family man and an important
icon for Italian Americans. Marciano spoke Italian to his parents, who couldn’t
communicate in English.

Millions of boxing fans around the world
have been outraged by Canelo Alvarez for vacating his WBC Middleweight title instead
of facing GGG. In our opinion (both pundits representing Boxing
Kingdom) agree that this decision is the wrong one and it's a total
miscalculation.

Key
Points.

Canelo became a bigger star after he was comprehensively
beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. His next bout against Angulo did very well in
PPV sales.

Mexican’s have a proud boxing legacy and a
reputation for being warriors. Canelo’s fan base around the world would have
supported him, even if he was stopped rather early (unlikely). His fan base wouldn’t
have been effected much at all, as long as he showed heart and returned punches
while hurt. Canelo would have gone out on his shield if he was on the verge of
getting stopped and his fans would have respected that more.

Conculsion: The fact that Canelo has lost
before to Floyd Mayweather Jr is important. Canelo didn’t require tune up bouts
on regular HBO to re-build image. After his sole defeat Canelo went straight back to fighting on PPV.

Monday, 23 May 2016

Imagine
getting told what your promoter makes just before the weigh in!

Listening to
the recent episode of ‘From Brooklyn to The World’ was once again entertaining
and insightful. Malignaggi & Peter Cards gave expert insider boxing
knowledge on why the Ali Act still let’s fighters down.

Malignaggi
outlined a major problem for fighters. It’s when promoters for fighters sign
agreements for co-promotions. What happens is this! A promoter may lease his
fighters services out for a bout to another promoter. E.G Promoter A allows his
fighter to take part in a bout on another promoters card. Promoter A is given a
package and a portion of that is then passed onto the fighter. The fighter’s
purse is known from the beginning. However fighters aren’t usually told how
much the package is that their promoter is receiving from another promoter,
until it’s to late, usually before the weigh in.

So to make
this clearer. Promoters often don't reveal how much the total package is that
they have generated, until 24 or 48 hours before the bout. At that stage it's
impossible for a fighter to withdraw from a bout. If a fighter withdraws from a
bout at that stage they can become legally liable for losses in revenue. The
fighter has also signed an agreement before this. So a promoter could have
received $1M and paid a fighter a career high purse of $250 000. The fighter is
happy with the purse, so he signs on, but by the time the fighter is told how
much the promoter makes, it can often be before the weigh in. As long as it's
before the bout, 1 day or 30 days, it's the same, it's legal.

Then if a
fighter withdraws at that advanced stage, it’s impossible. The damages they
have to pay. The loss of fans. Etc etc.

Essentially the Ali Act is great in theory.
But reform is needed as Malignaggi has stated, as many professional fighters
are told about their promoters package only 1 or 2 days before the bout, after
having signed contracts.

Saturday, 21 May 2016

First let me start by saying Parker vs
Takam was an absolute war. It was fun to watch. Both fighters were tired
throughout. Both continued to trade heavy shots and both showed enormous
courage fighting to the final bell. In the end, the more polished and accurate
combinations of Parker, led the New Zealander to a life changing victory.
Parker is now mandatory challenger to Anthony Joshua. That bout will be ordered
for purse bid by the beginning of November provided AJ defeats Breazeale, which
he is widely expected to do. The bout will also mark a multi million NZ$ pay
day for Parker, providing enough money to set himself up for life.

So
what happened? Was Parker Impressive?

Parker was impressive in spots. But he also
showed serious weaknesses in other spots.

Parker showed serious limits and weaknesses
in defence. He was tagged clean in nearly every round. The only thing keeping
him up was his chin, which proved durable. Parker’s legs wobbled in round 7 (from
memory), but he recovered quickly after.

Takam came into the bout in great condition
and fought well. From the 4th round onwards he enforced a veteran
trick. Try let the youngster punch himself out & Takam wouldn’t do much for
the first 2 minutes of each round, changing it up with a hectic final minute of each
round characterized by relentless combinations and pressure.

Parker was the rightful winner. Takam
showed why he is under rated. Takam's only clear loss was a stoppage loss to
Povetkin. Takam had Povetkin hurt several times throughout their bout.

Overall I give Parker’s performance a 7 out
of 10. He won’t fight again until the AJ shot. He’s not going to risk a multi
million dollar pay day with tune up bouts. But Parker is what he is. He’s a ridiculously
fast Heavyweight with good punching power, combined with serious flaws in
defence. He’s going to be very dangerous for AJ in the first 4 rounds. I favor
AJ to win by KO in the mid rounds, but Joseph Parker is a serious threat. And a Parker
early win wouldn’t shock me one bit.

Wednesday, 18 May 2016

In a shocking sequence of events Canelo has
vacated his WBC Middleweight title, which has led to GGG being instantly promoted to SUPER WBC Middleweight Champion.

Key
Points:

Canelo & his team claimed that the WBC
timeframe to negotiate the fight was the key reason for vacating the belt.

Vacating the WBC title due to
the timeframes given for negotiations to reach an agreement doesn’t make much
sense. It’s highly likely the WBC would have provided an extension, had this
been requested from both sides.

By going to a purse bid which the WBC would
have enforced, the split would have been 70-30 in favor of Canelo. Canelo’s
team could have been aiming for a higher split of the purse, given how large his
PPV’s & gates have been, which easily beat GGG’s.

There is a slim chance this fight can still
get made, however it’s a lot less likely since Canelo doesn’t have his WBC belt
anymore. If it is purely based on economics then the reasons for Canelo
dropping the belt can be justified a little. However if negotiations were to
continue it would be GGG who is now in a stronger position, holding 3 full MW
belts, with Canelo being only the challenger (with a huge name).

Unfortunately it just seems as though this
fight won’t get made. Both our pundits and everyone feels let down, but this is boxing. The big winner out of these events is BJ Saunders. Team GGG have stated that they want all
4 belts before moving up a division. Saunders knows
this and he can negotiate his way into a HUGE pay day.

If you get the chance please retweet this
article on twitter. We are also looking for another boxing pundit to come on board in the
future.